Un’innominabile presenza: le lesbiche nel femminismo italiano tra nominazione, silenzio e conflitto. Elementi di un dibattito e considerazioni attuali
An Unmentionable Presence: Lesbians within Italian Feminism between Naming, Silence and Conflict

Summary/Abstract: Italy nowadays continues to witness a missed encounter betweenfeminists and lesbians. This is the result of the incompatibility between asociety for all women and the lesbian specificity as an autonomous practice thatis existential, political, and theoretical. Lesbians have been active in thefeminist movement ever since its inception. However, their presence hasoscillated between a silent integration and a fight for the affirmation of theirown specificity within the “in-between women”.From the 1970s onward, Italian feminism aimed to craft a wide movementembracing the identity and freedom of every woman. Yet, the objection is thatit did not make room for the specificity of some women, cutting off thequestion of sexuality, thus mutilating the “personal is political” practice. In thispaper, I trace the debate of the 1970s and 1980s on these issues through areading of the Italian feminist journal DWF. More specifically, I consider theinterventions of Ida Dominijanni, Simonetta Spinelli, and a discussion betweenTeresa De Lauretis and Luisa Muraro.

• Details
• Contents